Fiscal Conservatism in the Bush Years, Part MCXII

David Weigel | September 28, 2006

Q: Sure, the occupation of Iraq isn't going well, but what about all those hospitals and police stations and schools we've built?
A: Um.

A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.

The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."

As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down; presuming they stand up in one of the places that isn't getting soaked by a shit drop.